Saturday, January 03, 2015

We had two more ports in Malaysia as we cruised back south to Singapore and
in deed at our first port on the small island of Langkawi, we had not even
intended to stop for food. During our several hour mangrove swamp tour, stopped
at a fish farm/restaurant just to see the local creatures. We were so enticed by
the wide variety of novel and strange sea creatures that we ordered a plate of
TIGER SNAIL with Spicy Green Mango salad which we snarfed down in our boat as we
motored along the waterway laden with monkeys, eagles, poisonous vipers, bats
and more.

While the snail was akin to conch, it was indeed a bit chewy, but very
tasty and the spicy mango salad was the perfect seasoning foil. Needless to say,
Sam took one small bite and refused any more.

Back on the mainland the next day we were in port about 60 minutes or so
from Kuala Lumpur (referred to as "K.L") which actually means confluence of the
muddy waters.

We had two day long tours with our guide Tony, who had introduced us to
many wonderful flavors and tastes over a week before at our first port of
Melaka. We started in the new administrative capital of Putrajaya which was
built from nothing but oil palms just over a decade ago and now stands a
gleaming example of modern ingenuity, albeit also an homage to the Islamic
majority.

We stopped for a quick lunch on the huge man-made lake in the city center
and ordered up. We begged Sam to have a noodle dish, but he chose a burger and
fries, and he declared the meat pretty bad. Surprise, beef here is not a
specialty, and definitely not a burger. Tony suggested the NASI GORENG KAMPUNG,
and while Nasi Goreng is a familiar Indonesian/Malay dish to us of fried rice,
the Kampung version is graced with small dried anchovies as well as calamari,
shrimp, chicken our new favorite veggie water spinach (locally called
kangkung--pronounced like the locals in Mexico call Can-cun), and of course red
chillis. It was awesome as was the ROTI JALA, a sort of noodle net (it
literally means "bread net") made from noodle flour squeezed into a net-like
pancake which you tear off pieces from and dip in to a curry, in this case with
a little chicken. YUM, what a novel treat, and something f the that all the
locals seems to eat everywhere. CUCUR UDANG are fried shrimp with two sauces,
one a superb peanut sauce akin to what we get at home with satay, and the other
a sweet chilli sauce. It was fun to dip the shrimp in either sauce, or even mix
them for a third exciting flavor burst. The only bad choice was the Apple
Asamboi which is a sour plum drink that was cloying, sour and salty at the same
time. I pulled out one of the dried sour plums and it tasted like sour salt as I
sucked on the weird dried tidbit. Sam would not touch his after the first sip
and I couldn't blame him, but it was better than the durian treats we had tried
in Melaka.

That afternoon when we stopped at the Batu Caves, a Hindu holy place
outside K.L., we tasted some local munchies which we purchased to bring back to
the ship for later. Some were like donuts, others like curried crunchy fried
noodles and then one like a potato chip, but apparently tamarind flavored. There
was a small unmarked restaurant in the open market area where we had delicious
PULLED TEA (pretty much like chai) along with ROTI CANAI, the Indian fried bread
served with a suace of curried lentils for dipping. Sam loved this and ate
several platters and we tried a second version which had an egg added as the
roti is pulled out in the kitchen (we got to watch) and then fried.

Since our tour included the evening boat tour of the rare fireflies on the
Selangor River about 45 minutes from K.L., we stopped in Kuala Selangor
(confluence of the Selangor River with the Straits of Melaka), one of the larger
cities of Selangor state, we stopped for dinner on the river at KEDAI MAKANAN
LAUT HUA HANG, an awesome Chinese seafood place where the entry way is filled
with vats of water and fresh fish caught that morning. There were a couple of
other white faces, but they seemed to come in only for a beer; we were here to
dine like the locals. The place was heaving and we ordered the 25 ringgit
multi-course meal (Sam was full from the roti canai and skipped eating here as
he really does not like seafood) which costs under $7 apiece. We had an extra
course of cockles, which are larger than the ones we have had in Europe, more
akin to tiny clams, which a very hot chilli dipping sauce. It was hard to open
some of these little guys, but Tony was there and showed us the tricks.
Watermelon juice was nice, and Will had a Japanese beer. The food began to
arrive and our table was laden with so many dishes:

FRIED RICE was on a plate alone piled high for enough to serve 8, BUTTER
PRAWNS were indeed buttery and came with a less spicy sauce and the FRIED FISH
with vegetables that was so tasty turned out to be SHARK!! A delicious plate of
Chinese vegetables just like at home consisted of black Chinese trumpet
mushrooms, bamboo shoots, pea pods and more in a sauce akin to what we would see
anywhere in the USA. The highlight and purpose of the meal for me was the CHILLI
CRABS, local crabs just a bit smaller than their Maryland kin were smeared with
a mild chilli paste an cooked to perfection. It was indeed hard work cracking
the shells with my hands and teeth to get out all the meat, but well worth the
effort, although Samuel and Will would not even endeavor a bite. The sauce was
amazing and worth the entire trip. Tony knew how much we had come to adore the
kangkung, and ordered it as we had the first night in Singapore, with sambal
belachan, the spicy prawn paste, but less spicy here, coating the water spinach
or morning glory. It was great to see this local family-run effort, with kids
cooking and serving and the older lady even cleaning and removing the stems from
the kangkung at a nearby table!

Will grabbed a yummy coconut loaded with milk and then we enjoyed the meat
itself as a dessert. The perfect palate cleanser to a superb meal.

On New Year's Day, Samuel decided to stay on board in the kid's club and
let us have our way with more wonderful sights and many foods. Tony chose his
favorite restaurant in K.L.'s Chinatown called LAI FOONG. To call it a
restaurant is not really fair, as it is a large open room where the landlord
leases small spaces for the various vendors to cook their dishes in each corner.
We went to several vendors and filled our table again with many superb
dishes:

CHINESE FRIED NOODLES (again, several types and widths) are a staple here
and always served in a spicy broth with whatever condiments you choose to add
from the vendor. We skipped the tripe and other innards and stuck with beef and
beef balls, which Will actually thought were cow testicles. They were tiny
whitish balls of ground meat almost the consistency of a dumpling, and I
reminded Will that cow's don't have balls, bulls do, and they are much larger
than these small 1/2 inch round treats.

We had eaten CHAR KUAY KEOW the first night in Singapore as well, but here
in Malaysia at this spot the excellent dish includes chicken, calamari, shrimp,
bean curd, tofu, bamboo shoots and tiny cockles in that divine chili garlic mix
with fried noodles of multiple types.

The highlight of this meal was the BBQ PORK which is served off the bone
with a lighter chilli glaze and a spicier chilli dipping sauce. The skin was so
crunchy you just wanted to get more and more of it. This had to be the best ribs
ever.

My drink was a Chinese can of JDB (or Jia Duo Bau) herbal iced tea that was
very tasty and refreshing. Lunch was finished with the local KOPI Malay coffee
with a dash of condensed milk for sweetness.

Total cost for three with drinks was 45 ringgits or under $13!!

As if this was not enough, Tony took us to his vendor friend in the open
market for the best chicken curry pies and tiny sugared peanut paste treats,
also cooked inside a small pastry shell the size of a peanut shell that were so
good we wanted to buy a ton, but refrained knowing we could not bring them home
with us.

What an amazing taste of Malaysia our last three days on land here were.